RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

• An important paradox of the Russian Revolution is its self-image as a global phenomenon and the specificity of Russian conditions that brought it about in Russia. 
• According to the Marxian theory of revolution, it was to take place first in advance industrial societies as a result of the maturing of the contradictions of capitalism. But the Socialist Revolution occurred in a backward industrial country like Russia.
• However, the coming of the revolution was nothing short of a storm that had a dramatic impact on the society and people of Russia. 
• If the French Revolution symbolized Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, the Russian Revolution symbolized much more –organized struggle, clarity of perspective and courage to go against the tide even if it meant being isolated in the whole world wide.

Historical Background

• In the years leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the country had a succession of wars. 
• These were The Crimean War (1854-56), The Russo- Turkish War (1877-78), The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and World War I (1914-18).
• All of these required a lot from the state, including tax dollars and manpower. Russia suffered defeat in all, except against Turkey. 
• This series of war caused great discontent among the people and caused suffering in the country’s economy and government.
• Along with these wars, there were three major parties that contributed to the cause of the revolution.
• First, there were the peasants, who maintained the majority of the population in Russia. 
• They were excessively poor and could barely escape famine from harvest to harvest.
• The population boom in Russia from 1867-1896 was felt most drastically by the peasants. 
• The increase of 30 million people in less than 30 years was too great that the land to the peasants’ disposal did not increase sufficiently.
• The government tried to help, but war took precedence. Second, there was a rise of the industrial working class. These workers were employed in the mines, factories and workshops of the major cities. 
• They suffered low wages, poor housing and many accidents. Again, the government tried to help by passing factory acts to restrict the amount of hours one could work. 
• However, their efforts were at too small a scale to have any real effect. As a result, there were many strikes and constant conflicts between the workers and the police. 
• Lastly, the tsar of Russia was the cause of much disapproval. Tsar Nicholas II was much more interested in his family life, than matters of the state.
• He had an obsession with retaining all his privileges and the belief that he was chosen by God to rule. Also, he didn’t understand the forces of industrialization and nationalism that were growing throughout Russia.
• His disregard for the struggles of the people led them to lose faith in him and the long- standing tradition of autocracy. 
• The people were not content and were ready to revolt. They just needed a good reason and a strong leader. 

The Russian Revolution

• The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Russian SFSR.
• The Emperor was forced to abdicate and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917 (March in the Gregorian calendar; the older Julian calendar was in use in Russia at the time).
• In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik government.

Between February and throughout October: “Dual power”

• The effective power of the Provisional Government was challenged by the authority of an institution that claimed to represent the will of workers and soldiers and could, in fact, mobilize and control these groups during the early months of the revolution — the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. 
• The model for the soviet was workers’ councils that had been established in scores of Russian cities during the 1905 revolution.
• In February 1917, striking workers elected deputies to represent them and socialist activists began organizing a citywide council to unite these deputies with representatives of the socialist parties.
• On 27 February, socialist Duma deputies, mainly Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, took the lead in organizing a citywide council. 
• The Petrograd Soviet met in the Tauride Palace, the same building where the new government was taking shape.
• The leaders of the Petrograd Soviet believed that they represented particular classes of the population, not the whole nation. 
• They also believed Russia was not ready for socialism.
• So they saw their role as limited to pressuring hesitant “bourgeoisie” to rule and to introduce extensive democratic reforms in Russia (the replacement of the monarchy by a republic, guaranteed civil rights, a democratic police and army, abolition of religious and ethnic discrimination, preparation of elections to a constituent assembly, and so on).
• They met in the same building as the emerging Provisional Government not to compete with the Duma Committee for state power but to best exert pressure on the new government, to act, in other words, as a popular democratic lobby.
• The relationship between these two major powers was complex from the beginning and would shape the politics of 1917.
• The representatives of the Provisional Government agreed to “take into account the opinions of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies”, though they were also determined to prevent “interference in the actions of the government”, which would create “an unacceptable situation of dual power.”
• In fact, this was precisely what was being created, though this “dual power” was the result less of the actions or attitudes of the leaders of these two institutions than of actions outside their control, especially the ongoing social movement taking place on the streets of Russia’s cities, in factories and shops, in barracks and in the trenches, and in the villages.
• A series of political crises in the relationship between population and government and between the Provisional Government and the soviets (which developed into a nationwide movement with a national leadership, The All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets) undermined the authority of the Provisional Government but also of the moderate socialist leaders of the Soviet.
• Although the Soviet leadership initially refused to participate in the “bourgeois” Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, a young and popular lawyer and a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party , agreed to join the new cabinet, and became an increasingly central figure in the government, eventually taking leadership of the Provisional Government.
• As minister of war and later Prime Minister, Kerensky promoted freedom of speech, released thousands of political prisoners, did his very best to continue the war effort and even organized another offensive. Nevertheless, Kerensky still faced several great challenges, highlighted by the soldiers, urban workers and peasants, who claimed that they had gained nothing by the revolution: 
• Other political groups were trying to undermine him. 
• Heavy military losses were being suffered on the front.
• The soldiers were dissatisfied and demoralized and had started to defect.
• There was enormous discontent with Russia’s involvement in the war, and many were calling for an end to it.
• There were great shortages of food and supplies, which was difficult to remedy because of the wartime economic conditions. 
• The political group that proved most troublesome for Kerensky, and would eventually overthrow him, was the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin.
• Lenin had been living in exile in neutral Switzerland and, due to democratization of politics after the February Revolution, which legalized formerly banned political parties, he perceived the opportunity for his Marxist revolution.
• Although return to Russia had become a possibility, the war made it logistically difficult. Eventually, German officials arranged for Lenin to pass through their territory, hoping that his activities would weaken Russia or even — if the Bolsheviks came to power — lead to Russia’s withdrawal from the war.
• Lenin and his associates, however, had to agree to travel to Russia in a sealed train: Germany would not take the chance that he would foment revolution in Germany. 
• After passing through the front, he arrived in Petrograd in April 1917.
• With Lenin’s arrival, the popularity of the Bolsheviks increased steadily.
• Over the course of the spring, public dissatisfaction with the Provisional Government and the war, in particular among workers, soldiers and peasants pushed these groups to radical parties.
• Despite growing support for the Bolsheviks, buoyed by maxims that called most famously for “all power to the Soviets,” the party held very little real power in the moderate-dominated Petrograd Soviet.
• In fact, historians such as Sheila Fitzpatrick have asserted that Lenin’s exhortations for the Soviet Council to take power were intended to arouse indignation both with the Provisional Government, whose policies were viewed as conservative, and the Soviet itself, which was viewed as subservient to the conservative government. By most historians’ accounts, Lenin and his followers were unprepared for how their groundswell of support, especially among influential worker and soldier groups, would translate into real power in the summer of 1917. 
• On 18 June, the Provisional Government launched an attack against Germany that failed miserably. Soon after, the government ordered soldiers to go to the front, reneging on a promise.
• The soldiers refused to follow the new orders. The arrival of radical Kronstadt sailors — who had tried and executed many officers, including one admiral — further fueled the growing revolutionary atmosphere.
• The sailors and soldiers, along with Petrograd workers, took to the streets in violent protest, calling for “all power to the Soviets.” The revolt, however, was disowned by Lenin and the Bolshevik leaders and dissipated within a few days.
• In the aftermath, Lenin fled to Finland under threat of arrest while Trotsky, among other prominent Bolsheviks, was arrested.
• The July Days confirmed the popularity of the antiwar, radical Bolsheviks, but their unpreparedness at the moment of revolt was an embarrassing gaffe that lost them support among their main constituent groups: soldiers and workers.
• The Bolshevik failure in the July Days proved temporary. The Bolsheviks had undergone a spectacular growth in membership.
• Whereas, in February 1917, the Bolsheviks were limited to only 24,000 members, by September 1917 there were 200,000 members of the Bolshevik faction. Previously, the Bolsheviks had been in the minority in the two leading cities of Russia—St. Petersburg and Moscow behind the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries, by September the Bolsheviks were in the majority in both cities.
• Furthermore, the Bolshevik-controlled Moscow Regional Bureau of the Party also controlled the Party organizations of the thirteen provinces around Moscow.
• These thirteen provinces held 37% of Russia’s population and 20% of the membership of the Bolshevik faction.
• In August, poor or misleading communication led General Lavr Kornilov, the recently appointed Supreme Commander of Russian military forces, to believe that the Petrograd government had already been captured by radicals, or was in serious danger thereof.
• In response, he ordered troops to Petrograd to pacify the city. To secure his position, Kerensky had to ask for Bolshevik assistance. He also sought help from the Petrograd Soviet, which called upon armed Red Guards to “defend the revolution”.
• The Kornilov Affair failed largely due to the efforts of the Bolsheviks, whose influence over railroad and telegraph workers proved vital in stopping the movement of troops. With his coup failing, Kornilov surrendered and was relieved of his position.
• The Bolsheviks’ role in stopping the attempted coup further strengthened their position.
• In early September, the Petrograd Soviet freed all jailed Bolsheviks and Trotsky became chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. Growing numbers of socialists and lower-class Russians viewed the government less and less as a force in support of their needs and interests.
• The Bolsheviks benefited as the only major organized opposition party that had refused to compromise with the Provisional Government, and they benefited from growing frustration and even disgust with other parties, such as the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, who stubbornly refused to break with the idea of national unity across all classes.
• In Finland, Lenin had worked on his book State and Revolution and continued to lead his party, writing newspaper articles and policy decrees.
• By October, he returned to Petrograd, aware that the increasingly radical city presented him no legal danger and a second opportunity for revolution. 
• Recognizing the strength of the Bolsheviks, Lenin began pressing for the immediate overthrow of the Kerensky government by the Bolsheviks. 
• Lenin was of the opinion that taking power should occur in both St. Petersburg and Moscow simultaneously, parenthetically stating that it made no difference which city rose up first, but expressing his opinion that Moscow may well rise up first.
• The Bolshevik Central Committee drafted a resolution, calling for the dissolution of the Provisional Government in favor of the Petrograd Soviet. The resolution was passed 10–2 and the October Revolution began.